Originally posted by TexasSky:
Mark 2:15 While Jesus was having dinner at Levi's house, many tax collectors and sinners were eating with him and his discples, for there were any who followed him. When the teachers of the law who wer Pharisees saw him eating with the sinners and tax collectors, they asked his disciples, Why does he eat with tax collectors and sinners." (Reminds me of a few people on this board.)
On hearing this, Jesus said to them, "It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners."
Mark 3:4 Then Jesus asked them, "Which is lawful on the Sabbath; to do good or to do evil, to save life or to kill?" But they remained silent. (If you are wondering about the context. Some legalists were complaing that by picking grain to keep from starving the disciples were violating God's law. They cared more about their legalism than they did about God's love of man.)
Mark 3:32-34 has an interesting little thing:
A crowd was sitting around him, and they told him, 'Your mother and brothers are outside looking for you. Then he looked at those seated in a circle around him, and said, "Here are my mother and my brothers. Whoever does God's will is my brother and sister and mother." (Back in Matthew, he told us his will was that we love one another.)
Mark 7:5-8 is a rather frightening set of verses for modern Pharisees too.
"So the Pharisees and teachers of the law asked Jesus, "Why don't your disciples live according to the tradition of the elders instead of eating their food with unclean hands?" He replied, "Isaiah was righ when he prophesied about you hypocrites; as it is written. "These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. They worship me in vain, their teachings are but rules taught by men." You have let go of the commands of God and are holding onto the traditions of men. And he said to them You have a fine way of setting aside the commands of God in order to observe your own traditions! For Moses said, "Honor your father and your mother, and anyone who curses his father or mother must be put to death, but you say, that is a man says to his father or mother, "Whatever help you might otherise have received from me is Corban (that is a gift devoted to God) then you no longer let him do anything for his father or mother. Thus you nullify the word of God by your tradition, that you have handed down, and you do many things like that. [/b} (Gee, maybe NOT helping a sinner because he is a sinner? Or maybe NOT helping a sinner because you have to be at church everytime the doors open instead of helping at the homeless shelter? You think "I don't have to love him because he isn't a Christian," falls into "nullifying the word of God," ?)
Mark 9:38-41 "Teacher," said John, "we saw a man driving out demons in your name and we told him to stop because he was not one of us." (Sounds familiar doesn't it? Billy Graham is unsaved because he didn't condemn others) "Do not stop him," Jesus said, "No one who does a miracle in my name can in the next moment say anything bad about me for whoever is not against us if for us." (Hmm, Billy seems to always be calling people to Christ, would that mean that he could be for us?) I tell you the truth, anyone who gives you a cup of water in my name because you belong to Christ will certainly not lose his reward.
Mark 10:18 and on : "Why do you call me good?" Jesus answered, "No one is good - except god alone. You know the commandments: do not murder, do not commit adultery, do not steal, do not give false testimony, do not defraud, honor your father and mother." "Teacher," he declared, "All these I have kept since I was a boy." Jesus looked at him and loved him, "One thing you lack." he said, "Go, sell everything you have and give it to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Them come, follow me.
The ONLY thing the boy lacked was love enough to sacrifice his for the poor. The ONLY thing.
Mark 11:25 "And when you stand praying, if you hold anything against anyone, forgive him, so that your Father in heaven may forgive you your sins." (There is is again. Forgive so you can be forgiven. What if you DON'T forgive? What if you hold onto that righteous right to feel superior?)
Mark 12:28-29
"One of the teachers of the law came and heard them debating. Noticing that Jesus had given them a good answer, he asked him, "Of all the commandments, which is the most important?
"The most important one," answered Jesus, is this: 'Hear O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all our heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.
THE SECOND IS THIS: "Love your neighbor as yourself." THERE IS NO COMMANDMENT GREATER THAN THESE." (There it is AGAIN. Obviously, he must have meant something else. I mean, surely all you people preaching hate and judgment and unforgiveness can explain it away some how. Christ must not have MEANT that when he said it. Or wait, maybe it ONLY applied to that Pharisee. Sure, that's it. Couldn't have applied to EVERYONE could it?)
That's Mark.
